How to make 2 shots into 1? Hiding the edit...

D

DVX100Shooter

Veteran
I have seen this effect in movies like The Fighting Temptations and most recently on the Barbershop 2 DVD (Mary J. Blige Music Video) there is a shot that begins on a street level on a crane then is raised up to a 2nd floor window and goes through the window. Now here is where I think the 2nd shot starts because the camera keeps moving around the room in either a dolly or stedicam shot. Is there a way in FCP to do a edit like that? Basically you will be hiding the edit making it look like one long complete shot. I watched that Music Video over and over and it looks seemless! In The Fighting Temptations movie, The shot starts with an aerial shot from a helicopter high above the ground then gets lower and lower and before you know it, your walking right up to the front of the church! The latter shot had to be stedicam. I guess they do a match frame edit to make 2 shots look like one shot....but wouldn't there be a jump from the shot from the helicopter to a stedicam shot? If so, how do they make it seemless to look like one shot.

Any thoughts...
 
Re: How to make 2 shots into 1? Hiding the edit...

A lot of times this is done with a 3D element to hide the seam. Take a look at the latest DVD release for Panic Room. There is a whole section just on how the "big shot" where the seemingly single camera shot throughput the house.

For simple 1 edit type solutin, usually as the camera moves through a dark area, an edit can be done, but you need to make sure the camera is moving at the same speed in order to pull it off.

Michael
 
Re: How to make 2 shots into 1? Hiding the edit...

Yea I heard Alfred Hitchcock used that technique in an Experimental film he did.
 
Re: How to make 2 shots into 1? Hiding the edit...

[quote author=DVX100Shooter link=board=FCP;num=1089038599;start=0#2 date=07/05/04 at 16:39:11]Yea I heard Alfred Hitchcock used that technique in an Experimental film he did.[/quote]

The film was "Rope."
 
Re: How to make 2 shots into 1? Hiding the edit...

That is a great idea. I am going to try that.
 
Re: How to make 2 shots into 1? Hiding the edit...

Yea I couldn't remember the title! I sort of do that now on certain shoots. I will use people or shoot traffic on the highway real tight then use that as a transition like a city bus going in the frame then out of the frame without the camera moving can be used like a wipe if you shoot it tight enough then bring in your next edit as the bus or truck is leaving the frame. I have also done stuff where I am shooting something then I will pan up and do a slow push towards the sky then reset my shot from a different angle and start on the sky then pan down to reveal a whole different shot. You just have to be creative when your on location..."in camera" transitions as I like to call them.
 
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